Our “American Hats”
John McCain asked his fellow Republicans to “take off their Republican hats and put on their American hats” while calling for a postponement to the start of the Republican convention, set to begin tomorrow in St. Paul, due to hurricane Gustav.
Senator McCain should perhaps be asking the FBI, Minneapolis police, and the Ramsey County Sheriff to take off their police thug hats and stop harassing and detaining American citizens.
A friend, who lives in Minneapolis, alerted me to a series of raids carried out over the weekend by Ramsey county sheriff SWAT team with the assistance of FBI agents.
At least four homes were entered, computers, personal journals, and political pamphlets seized while occupants were handcuffed and forced to lay on the floor. Repeated demands to see a search warrant were apparently ignored until the heavily armed officers left.
Dozens of people were also handcuffed, photographed, and detained at a public venue and meeting place for an organization called the “Republican Welcoming Committee” for “fire code violations”.
There were no reported illegal acts nor has there been any evidence proffered by any source that I could find of any conspiracy to commit any illegal acts.
It appears nothing more than an abridgment of the constitutional rights of left-wing dissidents intent on carrying out their once-guaranteed freedom of speech and assembly.
Where is the Outrage?
Any American should be concerned when they see such tactics used, but little is being reported on this, save for the links below.
We all hope for the safety of those in Gustav’s path, but there is perhaps an even larger storm brewing in this country, one that has been gaining strength for some time. And it is one for which we must not evacuate but meet head-on.
George Bush and Dick Cheney have done much to eviscerate American principals, and too many have gone along for too long, either through agreement, ignorance, or apathy.
We are left with a police state in Minneapolis on the eve of the nominating convention of the party that has given us eight years of national tragedy. What’s next?
We’re losing America and too few seem to care.
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/index.html
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/31/raids/index.html
http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/6158/breaking-food-not-bombs-house-among-saturday-raids
Filed under Chastise Man, George Bush, History Blogs, John McCain, News, Politics, Presidential Election 2008, Things That Make Me Cranky by 
Reports recently show “startling evidence” that Republican presidential candidate John McCain is the Antichrist, according to “biblical scholars”.
The analysis was conducted by the True Bible Society and will be published next month in the End Times Journal. McCain may be trying to throw us off his trail, it is said, by subtly implying that Barrack Obama is the Antichrist by calling him “The One”.
My gut reaction to all this is:
“Oh, Dear Christ! Haven’t we been through enough already? You mean to tell me that both candidates for president after George Bush might be the Antichrist?!!?”
Perhaps they’ve got a co-Antichrist thing going on. But I doubt it. Because we all know who the Antichrist is, don’t we?
Dick Cheney
Besides, even if the position weren’t already filled, do we really think that John McCain is the best they could muster down there in hell to represent evil incarnate?
For evidence I offer this John McCain montage:
On the other hand, a bumbling idiot can really do a lot of damage…. Hmmm….
Filed under Chastise Man, Humorous, John McCain, News, People, Politics, Presidential Election 2008, Religion by
Hmmm…. Seems like the typical crew I see when I walk down Polk St.
At least they’re voting (except for the one who doesn’t want to get blamed for anything).
-Have a Nice Day!
Filed under Barack Obama, Chastise Man, Comic Relief, Fun Stuff, Humorous, John McCain, People, Politics, Presidential Election 2008, Ron Paul, Video by
“Liberals Are Killing America”
Not only that, the 14th amendment is “predicated on nothing less than pure communism” (which is why Barack Obama is poised to “take over America”).
Further, our reliance on and addiction to Middle Eastern oil (using G.W.’s own characterization) is nothing more than a plot from liberals, headed by Al Gore, to block our blessed right to drill every last drop of oil – the environment, future generations, and true economic development and innovation be damned. Every God-fearing American knows that drilling in ANWR would provide the “opportunity to free ourselves from the bondage of tyranny from the Middle East, with very little impact on the environment”.
Liberals are killing America.
After nearly eight years of continued and relentless erosion of the founding principles upon which America was founded (a.k.a. the Constitution); after more than five years of a war of choice, sold to a frightened and supine public on false justification, poorly planned, and incompetently executed; after largely underestimating the true terrorist threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan, only to let it re-emerge stronger and smarter; after abandoning the principals of humanity that once held to the core of the spirit of America (at least in theory); after illegal imprisonment, torture, and surveillance of its own citizens; after allowing a city to drown through sheer incompetence; after neglecting our environmental heritage, wrecking the economy and burdening future generations with unfathomable debt (both environmental and economic); after making a mockery of this country in the eyes of the world, after all this and more – and all of it at the hands of neo-conservative idealogues bent on a radical un-American agenda and usurpation of power from the hands of a few into the hands of even fewer, turning the country of Paine and Jefferson, Adams and Washington into something those men might likely abhor if they knew what would one day become of their bold, if imperfect, vision – it is liberals that are killing America.
If America is dying, it is not liberals that are killing it. But neither is it conservatives – or even neo-conservatives.
It is an apathetic, uninformed, ignorant, unthinking, fat and lazy public that is killing America. It is allowing what has happened to happen, and then letting it continue in the hopes that our tanks stay full with cheap fuel and our televisions stay tuned to American Idol while the country slips away.
If this is, or ever was, a nation based on government of the people and by the people, then it is at the hands of the people that it will be allowed to die.
Liberals aren’t killing America; Conservatives aren’t killing America.
We are killing America.
-Have a Nice Day
…the citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth’s political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor.
-Mark Twain, an American
——————
The Declaration of Independence
The United States Constitution
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
Filed under Barack Obama, Chastise Man, George Bush, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky by
Chastise Man recently had a brief sense of regret that soon his old nemesis George Bush, The Man Who Broke the Country, would soon be gone and there would be no easy outlet for his wrath (which he soon got over). Then Chastise Man remembered a couple weeks ago, watching Keith Olbermann’s “special comment” about Hillary Clinton’s unfortunate reference to the RFK assassination.
While Hillary used the word “assassination” once in her comment, Olbermann kept repeating it, over and over. He was upset, outraged, indignant, but for what? It seemed that he was becoming a bit unhinged in his righteous indignation (unlike many of his previous rants in which he expressed appropriate outrage).
This got Chastise Man to thinking; it’s a fine line between righteous indignation and insanity – simply barking at yourself.
I think we’ve all become so accustomed at being pissed-off, at how the Bush administration has wrecked things, at how Congress can’t get anything done, at how liberals are immoral, unpatriotic, terrorist-loving scoundrels and conservatives are war-mongering, lying, thieving, fear-loving scoundrels.
Since we’re all scoundrels in some form or another it becomes our choice to let it either divide or unite us – at least in a time of crisis. And this is a nation in crisis.
And so we look beyond George Bush and to the possibility of a new presidency and a new start.
There are smart folks that Chastise Man respects who have expressed concern over Barack Obama – rhetoric over substance and inexperience being foremost. These are valid concerns. But after eight years of neither good policy or soaring, inspirational rhetoric, Chastise Man is happy to take the soaring inspirational rhetoric, at least for now.
This country needs inspiration, it needs to be reminded that the American experiment is still, and always will be, a work in progress. It is a country that was founded on change, and if ever there was a time we needed change in America, it is right now.
It remains to be seen of America can overcome her worst tendencies toward fear, hatred, and racism. Right now I choose to believe she can.
Filed under Barack Obama, Chastise Man, Politics, Presidential Election 2008, Something Nice to Say by
A young man of conscious:
And the conscious of the King – in solidarity with his subjects :
Said with a straight face as if he has no idea, no idea at all, that the world would be a better place if he had stayed on the golf course and never set foot in Washington.
And what’s up with the jerk doing the interview? “Uh, Mr. President, was there a particular moment or incident that brought you to that decision, or how did you come to that?”
He “came to that” because you’re an idiot, Mr. Interviewer, the President is an idiot, and this country and the entire world will pay for it for years to come.
How is it that we have sunk so low as to take the president’s alleged abstinence from golf as some meaningful act of solidarity with those whose lives he has ruined? WHY IS THIS MAN STILL IN OFFICE??!!
If we get the leaders we deserve, then we have gone woefully astray my friend. January 2009 will come eight years too late.
ARRGHHHHHH!!!
Filed under Chastise Man, George Bush, News, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky, War, War in Iraq by
I must have been sleeping in 7th grade civics class…
To wit:
“There shall be oversight of or law passed constraining the Vice President of the United States – as long as his name is Dick Cheney – from allowing him to do or say whatever the hell he wants.”
Darn, I really must of slept like a baby when that part of the Constitution was read.
Watch it and Weep:
Filed under Chastise Man, George Bush, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky by
If you really wanted to help, you’d go run your foundation. I don’t like you as much as I used to. In case you care…
(By the way, could you not wave that bony finger in my face?)
Shaddup Already!
Filed under Chastise Man, News, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky by
And that’s just in his own congressional district. (California District 8, Nancy Pelosi – yikes! A San Franicsco Liberal!!).
Maybe we don’t need 19,045 music and arts teachers in this one district, but in California it seems we’re more and more hard-pressed to see to educating our children at all, let alone in the arts. And don’t think music and arts isn’t important. Without music programs (and an excellent teacher) in his school many years ago, Chastise Man could easily have pursued a life of crime. (who knows?)
But what of other issues?
With the $1.3 billion my congressional district has spent on the war in Iraq to date, there could have been 135 new elementary schools built, staffed with 19,363 new teachers to educate the children in those schools, 503,943 of those children could have health care, or 161,260 more Head Start organization for those children to go to. Seems like we could have blanketed the district with education with plenty left over for other districts (who, of course, could have blanketed their districts… Hell, America could have actually lived up to Bush’s rhetoric of “no child left behind”)
Ah, but what about national security, the “hotbed of terrorism” the “central battlefield on the war on terror”; keeping America safe from those who would do us harm and all that?
My $1.3 billion would have put in place 17,027 Port Container Inspectors, or 24,085 public safety officers.
Our dependence on foreign oil? $1.3 billion from district 8 would have built 2,402,036 homes with renewable energy. That’s two million, four hundred two thousand, eighty five homes – from the tax bill thus far for the Iraq war from one congressional district.
Health care? 554,874 more people with health care.
Affordable housing? 4,035 more units…
I think the point is clear.
Obviously America is much better off after five years of war in Iraq, our kids are better educated, our streets and ports are safer, we’re well on the way to kicking our “addiction to oil”, the less fortunate have affordable housing, and we all have access to health care.
Not.
Happy April Fools from Chastise Man. In the time it’s taken you to read this happy post, America has spent nearly a half-million more dollars on the war in Iraq.
click here to learn more
Filed under Chastise Man, George Bush, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky, War, War in Iraq by
When an interviewer recently stated that two-thirds of the American public feel the war in Iraq has not been worth the cost, Cheney replied:
So indeed.
Just in case anyone thought the vice-president might care just a little what those for whom he serves think and feel – he doesn’t – never has, never will.
Lucky for us, the clock is ticking (just take a look at the sidebar on the right… tick, tick, tick)
Filed under Chastise Man, People, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky, War in Iraq by
